


in progress to you

by loveclouds



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Happy Ending, M/M, Mutual Pining, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 10:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17202152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveclouds/pseuds/loveclouds
Summary: The eventuality of Oikawa and Iwaizumi falling toward each other is dramatically lackluster. Still, it's a process to go through.





	in progress to you

**Author's Note:**

> This was commissioned by @Sam_Quiche for @wallynbynw. Happy holidays!

\---

 

After the metaphorical blood and literal sweat, snot, and tears of their high school graduation, Oikawa meets Iwaizumi in their local neighborhood park a little past midnight to get up to some shenanigans. 

 

Well, for once, it isn’t, really. No beetle catching, no tag around the swingsets, no angry strategizing of how to bleach Ushiwaka’s volleyball uniform, and no Iwaizumi scowling and lecturing Oikawa about his shitty self-confidence in that particularly anxious and worried Iwa-chan way. 

 

Tonight, they just bury a box that they’re calling a time capsule behind the slide. It’s metal and small but there wasn’t much to put in it--most of their material objects are coming with them to Tokyo to ward off homesickness. 

 

Letters, they’d decided. Wouldn’t it be fun to dig it up at 28 just to see what they said to each other at 18?

 

Back at Oikawa’s house, as they brush their teeth as quietly as possible in the upstairs bathroom, Oikawa watches Iwaizumi in the mirror. He watches his best friend pace from the shower to the opposite wall, unable to keep still, and he wonders if Iwaizumi feels the same restlessness, excited for the future but deeply anxious of the inevitable chasm that will open between them as their lives start to split paths. 

 

They’ll be living together in Tokyo still, Oikawa at least has that, but still, even still. Their universities are different and their friends will be different and their goals are already different.

 

“What?” Iwaizumi asks, and Oikawa startles, eyes meeting Iwaizumi’s in his reflection. Perhaps the worry had crept into his face. 

 

“Nothing,” he answers around a mouthful of toothpaste, and it’s true and also a lie, but Iwaizumi only looks at him rather than argue one way or another. Oikawa smiles as big as he can and tries not to think about the fear gripped tight around his heart.

 

Iwaizumi assesses him a moment longer before walking beside him to nudge him out of the way with a hip. Oikawa squishes up against the wall and frowns to have the sink taken away like that, but Iwaizumi turns to him with a small, toothpastey smile, a real Iwa-chan smile, and Oikawa lets the tension drain from his shoulders. 

 

He likes it when Iwaizumi smiles at him like that. 

 

It’s Oikawa’s. And it’s good.

 

\---

 

“But what if you _didn’t_ eat my pudding all the time?” Iwaizumi asks flatly, ignoring the way Oikawa is slapping his thigh to get out of his chokehold. “Do you think I buy them for you, huh? I buy them for _me_ , you turd.”

 

“What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is also _mine!_ ” Oikawa yelps, sweating from the summer heat and total amusement that this is what Iwaizumi has decided is a reasonable way to resolve their current roommate issue. “Iwa- _chan!!_ ” he whines, “it’s too hot for this, can’t we raincheck this for autumn?”

 

Iwaizumi tightens his chokehold, but gentle, Oikawa thinks, always so gentle even when he’s rough. “I want to kill you _now._ ”

 

“But you’re messing up my hair~” Oikawa whines, slapping ineffectively at Iwaizumi’s thigh some more. He thinks about it and suddenly digs his fingers in, laughs gleefully as Iwaizumi barks out a shocked laugh and goes toppling with him onto their fake hardwood floors. 

 

Their apartment is really quite small compared to the spacious rooms of Miyagi houses, but this is Tokyo and Oikawa didn’t think it would be different. They live a bit far from the train station but the rent’s cheaper this way and they get good sunlight in the afternoons. Oikawa sometimes falls asleep on the secondhand sofa they have in the living room, waiting up on nights that Iwaizumi works the late shift at his part-time job, always a bit unnerved to sleep in their apartment alone in the big city. 

 

“What time’s your mixer?” Iwaizumi asks, flat on his back on the floor, gazing neutrally at the ceiling. 

 

“Eight,” Oikawa says, wiggling his head where it’s pillowed on Iwaizumi’s tummy. Not much for a soft pillow but it sure is warm. Actually, it’s too warm, and their air conditioner really isn’t very good.

 

“Then you have time to fix your hair still. Better not put any more gel in it or you might catch fire in direct sunlight.”

 

“Wouldn’t you like that, Iwa-chan!! I’m too hot, the only way to make me less hot is for me to go bald!”

 

“I feel so sorry for anyone who falls in love with you,” Iwaizumi says with such sincerity that Oikawa gasps and tries to take a swat at him, but Iwaizumi is already pushing him up so they can get off of the floor. 

 

For just a bit, there’s an awkward gap in sound. Oikawa tries to read the unnaturally blank look on Iwaizumi’s face and feels a familiar gnaw in his stomach when he can’t parse it any better now than he could back in high school. Iwaizumi gets like this sometimes. It’s like he blinked one day and missed something hugely important about his very best friend, and now he can’t find his way back to where he went wrong.

 

“Don’t be jealous, Iwa-chan! You know you can come tonight, right?” Oikawa says quickly, “My friends keep asking me to bring you.”

 

“Did you show them pictures on your phone again!?”

 

“M-maybe? But they were curious! And Manami-chan said her friends really want to meet you.”

 

“I don’t want to get in your way, anyway.”

 

“Oooh Iwa-chan, bold of you to assume you would get in my way with anybody.”

 

Iwaizumi only sighs like a punctured balloon and locks Oikawa back into a chokehold to really mess up his hair, but it’s clearly pointless because all Oikawa does is laugh and laugh and laugh, hugging him tightly around the middle. 

 

It’s good when Iwaizumi is close. It’s good when Iwaizumi smiles at him in that Iwa-chan way of his, fond and honest and only for him. He does it less these days and Oikawa doesn’t like that, because he worries that Iwaizumi is slowly going to love him less with time when all Oikawa knows is how to love Iwaizumi the same, every single day. 

 

There are things that they should probably talk about. 

 

When he gets home half past midnight, Iwaizumi is still awake and sitting on their sofa, typing away on his laptop. He stares at the flush to Oikawa’s cheeks and the way he fumbles with the laces of his shoes and gets up to help Oikawa’s drunk ass to bed, voice soothing even as he quietly scolds him for drinking too much.

 

“We talked about you again tonight,” Oikawa mumbles, half-asleep, slowly being lowered to bed. 

 

He keeps his grip tight around Iwaizumi’s torso though, refusing to let go no matter how much Iwaizumi pets his hair, and silently cheers his internal triumph when Iwaizumi finally sighs and gets into bed with him.

 

\---

 

In their first year of university, Oikawa doesn’t date anybody. He’s too busy, there’s too much to think about with school and volleyball and quietly stalking Ushiwaka’s single pathetic Twitter account to see what his arch nemesis is up to these days, and he’s also put himself in charge of making Iwaizumi dinner bentos twice a week for when Iwaizumi inevitably has to work late shifts at his part-time job. 

 

In their second year of university, Oikawa goes on a slew of mediocre first dates with a slew of really wonderful girls, but that gets old pretty quickly when they keep telling him that they think it’d be better to stay just friends. 

 

_It feels like you’re always thinking about something else, Oikawa-kun._

 

Part of him is relieved.

 

In their third year of university, Oikawa goes with Iwaizumi to Seoul during their winter holidays. He ignores absolutely all his friends who heckle him about it being the season for couple vacations and resolutely mentions none of it to Iwaizumi, just happy to spend some time with his overworked and overstressed best friend. 

 

“If it got any colder, I would actually just die,” Oikawa complains, shivering violently in his down jacket. They’ve decided to eat out at a restaurant popular for instagram photo ops but the line is long and the air is hurting his face. “Actually, I’m already dead, this is my upset ghost talking, too cold to move on to the next plane.”

 

Iwaizumi doesn’t seem to be faring much better. “Want to huddle some more?” He presses up along Oikawa’s side and ducks his head in, the white puffs of his breath nearly solid mass in the air. 

 

“Aren’t you romantic, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa teases, leaning in just as far. He looks up at Iwaizumi’s face through his eyelashes, quashes his disappointment when he sees that Iwaizumi isn’t looking back at him. “Are you hungry? I have some chocolate in my pocket.”

 

Iwaizumi laughs suddenly and loudly, leaving Oikawa startled but pleased. “What are we, five again? When was the last time you offered me pocket chocolate?”

 

“Probably last week,” Oikawa mumbles reproachfully, hoping the cold masks the red blooming across his face. “Fine, _don’t_ eat my chocolate, I’ll eat _all_ of it mys--”

 

“Okay, okay,” Iwaizumi says with a laugh, pulling off a glove to shove his hand into Oikawa’s left pocket. It gets him to shut up immediately, which was probably the point, but probably not because of what Iwaizumi assumes.

 

He rummages around Oikawa’s fingers before pulling his hand out to search Oikawa’s right jacket pocket, completely oblivious to how still Oikawa has gone.

 

“I can’t believe you brought chocolate with you,” Iwaizumi says with a snicker, finally locating one. He unwraps it and pops it into his mouth, blinking in surprise when he sees Oikawa’s expression. “What? I thought you wanted to share.”

 

“It’s fine,” Oikawa mumbles, staring at the patch of ice in front of them, the other customers lined up around them, anything but at Iwaizumi’s face. He steps back into Iwaizumi’s space and ducks his head onto Iwaizumi’s shoulder, shivering against him, really not minding so much if they have to keep waiting for a while, no matter how cold it is. 

 

\---

 

There are times when Oikawa wonders if he shouldn’t be worried about the enormity of being in love.

 

It’s a consuming thing to live through every day with the persistent pinch his heart, but it’s hard to find it out of place when he’s so familiar with it. He isn’t guilty or confused about how he feels—he’s had a lot of years to get over that. He doesn’t even feel that upset about how things are now, because Iwaizumi is his to have in every verifiable way. 

 

He does think it’s telling that Iwaizumi has never dated anyone steadily either, despite the few dates he’s been on during their university careers. He does think it says something that Iwaizumi gets quiet and standoffish for the days surrounding Oikawa’s openly declared mixers, the same mixers Iwaizumi refuses to attend together with him. 

 

Oikawa isn’t that stupid—he knows Iwaizumi better than he could claim to know anyone, and he knows how good it is that he gets Iwa-chan smiles given to nobody else.

 

It’s just hard to know what to do. As he gets older, it becomes clearer that the number of his age isn’t going to tell him what he should do next in life. He and Iwaizumi are already so settled, so comfortable; what’s really going to change at this point?

 

They’re in their last year of university and Iwaizumi is still his every day. And that’s very good.

 

\---

 

“Got your charger?”

 

“Yes, mom,” Oikawa sings, running back to his bedroom to grab his phone charger.

 

“You know you’ll have to be a functioning adult at some point,” Iwaizumi points out, laughing at Oikawa’s faux offended expression. 

 

It’s two days after Christmas and they’re making their way back to Miyagi to spend their winter holidays at home. Their last year of university has been intensely busy with job hunting for Iwaizumi and increased practices with his V.League team for Oikawa. A breather would be great; maybe Oikawa will even deign to see if Tobio and Chibi-chan are around. 

 

“Do you want to go to the shrine on New Year’s Eve again?” Oikawa asks once they’ve settled into their shinkansen seats, mind filled with what to do and eat at home. 

 

Iwaizumi shifts in his seat, looking at Oikawa briefly before turning back to looking at his lap. “You know how people say the way you spend New Year’s day is what sets the tone for the rest of year?”

 

“Mmhmm?”

 

“You don’t...want to try something...different? Eventually?”

 

Oikawa frowns, immediately tensing. “Different how?” He isn’t bad with change, but he is bad with Iwaizumi changing in ways he can’t anticipate. 

 

“We just keep doing the same thing every year,” Iwaizumi says evenly, but Oikawa finally hears the frustration in his voice and sees the tight line of his jaw. 

 

“I didn’t realize you didn’t like what we’ve been doing.”

 

Iwaizumi finally looks at him for that, mouth twisted with irritation. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

 

“I don’t know what you mean then.” And okay, Oikawa knows he isn’t helping the situation, and he knows this is how he tends to pick fights with Iwaizumi in particular, but he hates that Iwaizumi has been keeping this from him for god knows how long. He hates that all he wants is Iwaizumi’s time and attention and care and it’s there for him, until maybe one day it won’t be, and he doesn’t know how to watch his mouth or tiptoe with enough grace to not lose it all. 

 

“You know we’re graduating in three months, right?” Iwaizumi says more than asks.

 

“Of course.”

 

“Well, haven’t you thought about-- I don’t know, maybe we should get our own places and start living our lives.”

 

Ah. 

 

Well, that’s not very good.

 

“Was I getting in the way of your life, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa asks quietly, turning away. That one stung more than he wants Iwaizumi to see. 

 

“Oikawa,” Iwaizumi says in a sigh, sounding as exhausted as Oikawa has ever heard. 

 

But he doesn’t say anything else, either. Oikawa claws his hands into the bottom of his sweater and keeps looking out the window, pressing his fists into himself harder and harder, needing an anchor to focus on. 

 

The awkward, heavy silence between them drags on. A two-and-a-half hour shinkansen ride seems like the worst idea ever suddenly and Oikawa resents Iwaizumi for bringing this up the way he did. All he wanted to do was go to the shrine to greet a new year together. Yeah, maybe that is how he wants to set the tone for the rest of the year. Maybe that’s how he’s wanted to set the tone for all the years they’ve had and all the years to come. 

 

He thinks back to that night in the bathroom, freshly graduated from high school, the anxious ache in his belly at the potential of a future that splits them apart. 

 

\---

 

There are only a few days before New Year’s day but they all seem incredibly long for Iwaizumi. While his phone stays busy with calls and texts from Hanamaki and Matsukawa and the rest of their eternal Seijou family, it’s conspicuously empty of anything from Oikawa, and that would be obvious even if they weren’t in the middle of a tense fight that wasn’t really a fight. 

 

Oikawa isn’t the type of person to text his friends every single day but he is the person who texts Iwaizumi every single day about everything. Iwaizumi can’t say he doesn’t like it. 

 

Bringing the next year up the way he did was wrong, but he had gotten frustrated too. He knows it makes Oikawa nervous to talk about it but it’s not like they can avoid it forever and coast along the way they’ve always been, trying to keep this one thing between them the same even though everything else is different. 

 

Perhaps that’s just cowardice speaking. Iwaizumi isn’t scared of much but he’s very scared of losing what he has with Oikawa, even if what he wants is more.

 

Now Oikawa’s ducking his texts, even his calls, and Iwaizumi is pissed as much as he’s sorry. It’s not like he doesn’t want the things the things that make Oikawa happy. There have been few things in his life that weren’t done in alignment with Oikawa’s happiness. 

 

As New Year’s Eve starts to pass him by, Iwaizumi finally relents to his mother’s unamused and condescending suggestions to go to Oikawa’s house and make up with him in person. 

 

“You’re a twenty-one year old adult, Hajime,” she says, handing him an enormous wrapped bento box. “Give this to Tooru-kun’s mom if you need an excuse but use your big boy words and stop sulking around the house! Get out of here before I drive you back to Tokyo myself!”

 

Iwaizumi grumbles to himself the entire walk to Oikawa’s house. It’s nice to see Oikawa’s mom who promptly tells him about how Oikawa has been holed up sulking in his room for the past four days straight, like he’s experiencing some latent puberty where he forgot to be angsty through high school because he had been too focused on volleyball instead. Iwaizumi laughs at the thought but can only agree; they were really addicted to volleyball back then, and while he still plays with his university team, he’s never felt quite like that again. The spring of their lives passed before he knew he needed to appreciate it more. 

 

He had meant to do so much with moving in together, finally being alone together, planning the next stages of their lives together. Iwaizumi had conceptualized a very short list of very important things to do: 1) have a come-to-jesus talk with Oikawa about what’s between them, and 2) consider getting a cat.

 

So far, he’s been too scared to bring up 1), and he won’t do anything else without getting 1) figured out first. 

 

It was just never the right time. 

 

Every time he gathered the courage, Oikawa would look at him and smile or hug him from behind in the kitchen or demand Iwaizumi dry his hair for him after a bath and it always drove the courage away. 

 

Every time he thought he wouldn’t care, Oikawa would go to another mixer and Iwaizumi spent entire sleepless nights understanding that he cares _too_ much, even when he doesn’t want to.

 

Every time he thought himself strong enough to weather Oikawa parting from him, Oikawa would just be at his side, as he always has been, and Iwaizumi never did find the strength. 

 

He’s the one who talked a big game about doing something different for the new year. This is probably a sign if he’s ever needed one.

 

“Oh, Tooru isn’t here,” Oikawa’s mom explains once Iwaizumi finally asks, “he said he was going to go take a long walk and reflect about himself for the new year.”

 

“Who even does that?” Iwaizumi says before he can help it and runs away in a staccato of bows and promises to visit again before they return to Tokyo. 

 

\---

 

“So you’re here after all,” Iwaizumi says, watching the slight jerk of Oikawa’s bowed head at the sound of his voice. 

 

He had been halfway to the gym before he figured Oikawa wouldn’t actually want to practice by himself at a time like this, and lo and behold, he’s found his best friend huddled into himself on a swing far too small to accommodate his size, all alone in the neighborhood park.

 

“This place is for kids that you’re probably scaring away,” he continues when he gets no answer, walking closer to plop into the only other remaining swing. Is this thing going to hold both their weights?

 

“How did you know I was going to be here?” Oikawa asks quietly, still not looking at him.

 

“Your mom said you were taking a walk.” 

 

“That’s not even what I asked...” Oikawa mumbles, seemingly to himself. “I don’t want to talk to you right now, Iwa-chan.”

 

“I guess you can’t always have what you want, Oikawa.”

 

Oikawa’s shoulders tense up to his ears and Iwaizumi manages to take a single deep breath before Oikawa is rounding on him, eyes bright with anger. “I know that already, Hajime! I’ve clearly been trying to make peace with that for years!”

 

Iwaizumi keeps his voice calm, very aware of how serious Oikawa is. They’re still talking around what they want to say. “What do you want that you don’t already have, Oikawa?”

 

“What? Nothing!” Oikawa splutters, caught out for words. It’s not fair that Iwaizumi can catch him on a technicality. “I don’t know, everything! You don’t even want to spend the new year with me anymore, I don’t know why you think I’d be okay--”

 

“I didn’t say that,” Iwaizumi interrupts. He makes sure to look Oikawa in the eye. “That wasn’t what I meant.”

 

“I don’t know what you mean then,” Oikawa says, defeated and small, “I guess I’m your shitty best friend who never knows what you mean.”

 

Before Iwaizumi can say anything, Oikawa gets up and walks away to the slide, looking around a bit before dirtying his jeans to kneel in the dirt. He digs his gloved hands straight in, and it must be cold, Iwaizumi thinks. He must be freezing--the tip of his nose and his cheeks are bright pink. Oikawa must’ve been out here for a while already.

 

“It’s six years too early to dig that up,” Iwaizumi says half-heartedly. Oikawa ignores him, as expected, and Iwaizumi silently watches him from the swings, heart clenched in a tight knot in his throat. 

 

Once their time capsule is finally freed, Oikawa sits on the nearly frozen ground, not a moment of hesitation before he opens it up.

 

“Why are you even reading that now?” Iwaizumi asks, tired.

 

“Because I miss you from when I still understood you,” Oikawa snaps, throwing his own letter to the side in order to reach Iwaizumi’s. 

 

But it’s just a note. There is no letter. Oikawa reads the single piece of folded paper, probably over and over considering how he’s just staring at it with a dumb look on his face, the surprise slowly starting to morph to annoyance. 

 

“I guess I didn’t understand you even back then,” Oikawa concludes, quiet.

 

Iwaizumi can’t help the half-amused, half-exhausted smile that pushes up a corner of his mouth. “I’m glad it was always you,” he recites from memory. “What’s hard to understand about that?”

 

Oikawa looks like he’s going to disagree at first, but he goes silent again, sitting in the dirt, looking like a lost and overgrown kid. Iwaizumi finally goes to him, resigned to sitting in the cold dirt across from him.

 

“...Were you planning to be in love with me like this forever, just quiet about it?” Oikawa asks, voice so small that Iwaizumi can barely hear him. 

 

What a strange question to ask. 

 

Iwaizumi thinks of the nights he’s spent talking about the future with Oikawa, all the things they would do, the places they would go, just the two of them, not even a mention of anyone else. 

 

He thinks of their Saturday movie nights in Iwaizumi’s bedroom, surrounded by pizza and fried chicken, far more invested in their ongoing list of Netflix shows than going out to parties or hanging out with new university friends. 

 

He thinks of the cafe dates they’ve been on to some of the hottest cafes in metropolitan Tokyo, using future potential dating spots as an excuse even though Iwaizumi has never brought a single date to any of the ones he’s been to with Oikawa. 

 

He thinks of sitting in the crowd at Oikawa’s games, just another face among adoring fans, cheering and clapping in ways all of their old friends would probably call him embarrassing for. 

 

He thinks of the occasional nights of lying in Oikawa’s bed, their limbs tangled as much as Iwaizumi’s heart has been tangled in him over the years, taking advantage of Oikawa’s alcohol-fueled clinginess. Even as Oikawa’s voice croaked the next morning and his face sagged with headache and exhaustion, he would still wake up and smile into Iwaizumi’s chest, just like it was a natural thing to do, asking without any sheepishness if Iwaizumi would make them breakfast. 

 

Iwaizumi reaches for Oikawa’s left hand, taking the note away so he can drop it on the ground. He pulls off Oikawa’s dirt-caked gloves and holds his hands instead, an attempt to give back some warmth.

 

“Tooru,” he says gently, because this matters. “I think I was wrong to never say it properly, but I was also never very quiet about it.”

 

\---

 

“Oho~ if it isn’t Tobio-chan!”

 

Kageyama doesn’t seem to even understand what’s happening at first, but he straightens quickly once he does, bowing an immediate ninety degrees, much to Oikawa’s satisfaction. 

 

“Don’t bow that deeply, Kageyama,” Iwaizumi says, “he doesn’t deserve it.”

 

“It’s good to see you are healthy, Oikawa-san, Iwaizumi-san,” Kageyama says, ever the kouhai even after all these years. 

 

“He’s a robot, I don’t get it,” Oikawa says in a dramatic sigh, wandering off to where he can see Sawamura getting some amazake. It’s soothing to see familiar faces, especially the quickly aged ones that only ex-captains can have. 

 

The shrine is noisy and packed with people but Oikawa is determined to stick it out here until they can see the first sunrise of the year. This year is already different--he wants to start it right. 

 

“Is Oikawa-san alright?” Kageyama asks, clasping his hands respectfully in front of him. Iwaizumi finds him terribly endearing. “He looks like he might have been...uh...cr...uhh...”

 

No, how could he suggest such a thing? But now he’s talked himself into a trap!

 

“He’s bad with the cold,” Iwaizumi offers, eternally amused. 

 

Kageyama nods quickly. “I know Iwaizumi-san will make sure he doesn’t get sick.” Before Iwaizumi can even comment on that, Kageyama catches sight of Hinata excitedly harassing Oikawa with what are most likely questions about being a professional volleyball player, and he excuses himself with the biggest scowl to make sure Hinata leaves his senpai alone. 

 

Iwaizumi wonders with some amusement and a lot of gratitude how some things can remain so constantly the same. 

 

\---

 

“Iwa-chan~” Oikawa sings softly, head pillowed against Iwaizumi’s shoulder.

 

“Hm?”

 

“Nothing...”

 

Iwaizumi continues reading the impossibly long, rambling letter that Oikawa had written for him four years ago. Well, he tries to anyway, with Oikawa constantly distracting him by taking away his phone, leaving him with no light to read by. 

 

They’re secluded on a faraway hill a bit of a walk from the shrine, but Iwaizumi hadn’t wanted to be around a lot of people. Sunrise is taking forever to arrive and he’s absolutely freezing but it’s wonderful to have Oikawa’s arms looped around one of his, the warm weight of him a solid comfort at his side. 

 

“Iwa-chan~” Oikawa sing-songs again, and Iwaizumi sighs heavily, giving up on trying to read this ridiculously gushy letter. 

 

“Do you actually have something to say or did you wake up particularly annoying today?”

 

“Did you get to the haiku I wrote yet?” Oikawa asks excitedly, fazed by nothing, apparently extremely proud of his 18-year-old past self’s skills in poetry. 

 

“Why didn’t you give this to me sooner?” Iwaizumi asks, snaking his arm out from Oikawa’s death grip in order to pull him in at the waist instead. “It would’ve been a lot more obvious to me how to proceed if I’d had this letter as soon as we graduated.”

 

Oikawa’s face is neon red even in the dark but he’s clearly pleased about being hugged so intimately. He locks his arms around Iwaizumi’s middle, head pillowed on Iwaizumi’s shoulder. “What do you mean?” he asks in a happy sigh, “it’s just a normal letter.”

 

“...What’s your version of a love letter then…?”

 

“Probably put some nudes in it or something.”

 

“Mm...yeah, I don’t know how we’re going to date if I’m going to try and murder you at least once a day.”

 

“Iwa-chan!! Silly Iwa-chan, if you haven’t killed me already, I’d say we’ve been dating successfully for a while!” 

 

He’s basking so blissfully in Iwaizumi’s warmth that he doesn’t notice at first how quiet Iwaizumi has gotten. When he finally does, he pops his head up only to look, but for the first time in his life, Iwaizumi is looking right back with the same intention in his eyes, no more than a breath away, and Oikawa stops breathing entirely. 

 

Some abortive attempt at a lighthearted comment dies in his throat. Oikawa’s lips part anyway and the hairs on the back of his neck all stand when the movement causes Iwaizumi’s eyes to follow, and Oikawa’s entire spine seems to compress, his body locked in anticipation. He hears himself whisper all of _Haji--_ before Iwaizumi’s mouth is pressed to his, a simple kiss, a nice kiss, but Oikawa makes the most embarrassing noise anyway, a first kiss for the first time it’s mattered. 

 

Iwaizumi’s tightens his grip around Oikawa’s waist and raises his other hand to cup Oikawa’s cheek, parting for a quick breath only to deepen their next kiss, swallowing the small, incendiary noises Oikawa keeps making.

 

Oikawa misses sunrise. He feels the heat on his face but couldn’t tell it apart from the fire Iwaizumi lights inside of him anyway. 

 

\---

 

It takes months of combined savings to move to a new apartment but this one is newer with fancy heated floors, affordable only because it’s even farther from the station than their last apartment was. It’s a pain in the ass to be certain but Iwaizumi actually finds himself not minding the paperwork and domestic headaches, solely because he has Oikawa’s combined strengths and companionship in doing so. 

 

A couple of weeks before their university graduation, their living room still half-filled with boxes they’re too tired to unpack, Oikawa announces dramatically that Manami-chan is insisting on dragging him to the last mixer of their student careers. 

 

Iwaizumi narrows his eyes at the suggestion, perplexed. “Fine,” he concludes, asking nothing, “I’ll come with you.”

 

“Wait- wha--” Oikawa starts, but Iwaizumi leaves him sitting stupidly on the couch to go do some laundry, determined to find out about these mixers. 

 

That Friday, they arrive at a hip little izakaya close to Oikawa’s campus, greeted immediately with Manami’s cheers to see Iwaizumi leading the way in. “Iwaizumi-kun!” she calls, waving excitedly, and Iwaizumi takes in the usual group of Oikawa’s university friends sitting four to a table, two empty spaces left for him and Oikawa. 

 

Oikawa is noticeably quiet next to him. They join the group and Iwaizumi greets everyone, plenty familiar with all of Oikawa’s closest university friends. They’ve been on hikes and the occasional roadtrip before; Iwaizumi doesn’t leave Oikawa’s closest relationships as unknowns, and Oikawa treats him very much the same. But because of that, Iwaizumi is even more confused about this being classified a mixer.

 

“So...” he starts, getting right into it as soon as they get their beers, “these are the famous monthly mixers Oikawa likes to go on, huh?”

 

“Mixers?” Manami repeats, “I guess you could call it that if we’re talking about Oikawa only.”

 

“Yeah, and this would be mixer number one,” Tanaka says with a snicker, “Oikawa, this is Iwaizumi, Iwaizumi, this is Oikawa. Glad you two could finally meet in this official matchmaking event Oikawa has been trying to strategize at for the past four years.”

 

Iwaizumi stares at Oikawa, fully amused and exasperated. “Hey, I’m Iwaizumi, but you can call me Iwa-chan.”

 

“Iwa-chaaan!!” Oikawa wails, face in his hands, bright red to the tips of his ears and even down his neck. “Why did you have to come to this one only!?”

 

“Iwaizumi-kun, did you know Oikawa actually has a notebook he writes poetry in about you? He did a reading for us here a couple of years ago but we convinced him to find a different way to confess.”

 

“I’m going home,” Oikawa declares and really does leave, grinning from ear to ear when he hears Iwaizumi laugh and hand money over to his friends before following him without a word.

 

\---

 

Oikawa isn’t the biggest fan of waking up early. He does it a few days a week regardless though, determined to make Iwaizumi lunch bentos when he can muster up the energy and creativity. Well, he’s not the best cook, but it’s worth the time investment every time Iwaizumi comes home and gives him a kiss on the corner of the mouth, all soft smiles to tell him lunch was delicious. 

 

He knows his lunches are just okay. They taste alright. Iwaizumi is just so sweet though, always so sweet to him despite being really overworked and chronically uncomfortable with his new job and the stifling hierarchical constraints of being a newbie. 

 

Oikawa’s plenty busy himself with training and the occasional endorsement deal but his schedule is much more flexible. As it is, he’s only waking early to make Iwaizumi lunch and plans on going back to bed because he doesn’t actually have anything planned today. 

 

He’s sleepily fluffing his hair in the bathroom mirror when Iwaizumi’s arms loop around his middle, a solid wall of heat suddenly pressed full against his back. Oikawa melts, as he always does, sinking backwards into Iwaizumi’s embrace, suddenly unsure if he’ll get around to making lunch after all.

 

“You’re up earlier than you need to be,” Oikawa points out, nuzzling their cheeks together. Iwaizumi is so warm. 

 

“Guess I wanted a little bit longer with you this morning,” Iwaizumi replies, voice gruff with sleep and affection. He sets a hand on Oikawa’s hip to turn him around, pressing their bodies flush together, something much more adult. “I keep telling you not to lose sleep on making me lunch...”

 

Ah, an Iwa-chan smile. An excited buzz fizzles through Oikawa’s entire body, marveling at the familiarity and the newness of it. “I like to think about how you’re thinking about me even when you eat.”

 

“I’m always thinking about you,” Iwaizumi says, honest and plain.

 

Oikawa doesn’t kiss Iwaizumi as much as he tries to melt into one with him. Iwaizumi’s hands are big and hot as they sneak under his tshirt, sliding slow and tempting up his back before coming back down even slower. He kisses Oikawa all while smiling and that makes Oikawa smile back, on the verge of childish giggles. Oikawa loves when Iwaizumi kisses him like this.

 

It’s all Oikawa’s. And it’s good.

 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> goal for 2019: write more, write better (insert prayer hands)
> 
>  
> 
> as always, please come scream about iwaoi with me on twitter [@yuxisushi](https://twitter.com/yuxisushi) :)


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